Home Office

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baroness hamwee: Her Majesty's Government how notifications of the refusal of (1) visas, and (2) deportations, are served; and whether, for those purposes,there is routine use of mail that is not recorded in any way.

baroness williams of trafford: UKVI uses commercial partners to manage the visa application process. The decision to refuse a visa is recorded on our case working system, Proviso, a separate record is created when the decision is dispatched. Individuals have access to an online tracking service through the commercial partner which informs them when a decision has been made on their visa application and is available for collection or delivery. The Visa Application Centre is not privy to the justification to issue or refuse a visa. The primary method of service of any visa decision, whether issue or refusal, is via the Visa Application Centre unless they have requested another route, such as a courier service. There is no routine use of mail that is not recorded in any manner.  The service of a deportation decision is dependent on the location of the individual on which the decision is being served. Where the individual is detained in prison or an immigration removal centre, the deportation decision is served directly on the individual by officials in the prison or immigration removal centre. Where the individual is not detained a deportation decision is sent by recorded delivery to the individuals last notified address and a copy sent to their legal representative. The Home Office records the service of deportation decisions electronically on the case information database.

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lord oates: Her Majesty's Government what is the average time between receipt of a claim for asylum and determination of that claim.

baroness williams of trafford: Our records indicate that the average time between asylum claim and decision in each of the last five years is as follows: Year of ClaimAverage Time (In Days) from Claim to Decision20121712013198201416220151512016150   NotesThe data relates to the (mean) average time from date of claim for asylum to date of initial decision. The data does not include cases that have not yet had a decision.A case may be for a single claimant or for more than one person (the main asylum claimant and their dependants).The data relates to asylum cases where the application was raised between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2016Data taken from Case Information Database on 7 April 2017.These statistics have been taken from a live operational database. As such numbers may change as information on that system is updated.

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lord hylton: Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of action being taken to ensure the well-being of unaccompanied refugee children in Greece; and what steps they are taking to establish whether any such children are qualified to come to the UK by reason of extreme vulnerability or close family connection.

baroness williams of trafford: The UK recognises the pressures on European countries most affected by the migration crisis, and has committed over £100 million to the Mediterranean migration response. This includes £10million for a Refugee Children’s Fund for Europe which prioritises the needs of unaccompanied and separated children travelling through Greece and the Balkans. This support provides safe accommodation, educational activities, family reunification, psychosocial support, translation and legal advice.In addition, the UK is fully committed to identifying and transferring unaccompanied children in Greece who may qualify for transfer to the UK under the Dublin III Regulation or section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. We have a secondee in Greece who works with a network of partners including the Greek authorities, British Embassies, UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGOs to support this process.